Nanoporous carbon produced from a styrene-acrylonitrile random copolymer/carbon nanotube composite

A new type of nanoporous carbon material by pyrolysis of styrene-acrylonitrile random copolymer (SAN)/multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) composite was prepared. The thermal decomposable styrene component of the SAN could act as a soft template to form abundant nanopores with the help of the pristine nanotubular framework of the MWCNT. The measured Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area of the SAN/MWCNT-based carbon was up to 376-m²/g with a MWCNT content of 10 wt , 11 and 14 times as large as those of SAN-based and polyacrylonitrile/MWCNT-based carbons, respectively. As a result, the highest specific capacitance of an as-prepared SAN/MWCNT-based carbon reached 118 F/g, which is much higher than those of the latter two.